CTF Structure and Rules

A. How the CTF Is Designed

• There are three interconnected challenges, touching Lambda, EC2, RDS, and multiple IAM profiles.

• Only one flag exists, but obtaining it requires chaining three services in sequence:

  Hack Lambda → Hack EC2 → Hack RDS Snapshot

• All resources are located in the us-east-1 region.

B. Pre-flight Checks

Before starting, confirm that the AWS CLI profile securitymaster exists.

Verification command

aws sts get-caller-identity --profile securitymaster

This command returns the AWS account details for the selected profile, ensuring it is configured correctly.

Challenge 1 - Finding the Lambda

A. Objective

Identify the Lambda function, inspect its source code, and invoke it correctly to obtain the next set of credentials.

B. Starting Information

• Start with the IAM user geralt.

• Initial information is available at:

  https://aws-masterclass-data.s3.amazonaws.com/session10/session10-start-here.txt

C. Steps to Solve

1. Configure a New AWS CLI Profile

aws configure --profile session10level1

This command registers the initial IAM user credentials locally, allowing AWS CLI commands to run under this identity.